Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Laura C. | 6-22-2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

Greetings from the sea!  The M/V Sea Lion had an awesome day out on the water cruising along some fun waves and a windy breeze!  We headed north and first stopped along Flattop Island for some exciting commotion with several bald eagles circling overhead.  There was definitely some social gathering occurring or perhaps a nice meal under the trees because the eagles were so active!  We also saw some furry creatures scurrying up the rocks...

Erin | M/V Kestrel | Saturday, June 22, 2019 | 11:00 AM

It was a truly adventurous trip aboard the M/V Kestrel this morning. We began our trip heading north out of Friday Harbor. There were some orca reports in the Strait of Georgia, and we figured we would give it a shot to try and see them. On our way there, we stopped at Flattop Island. We saw lots of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks, some of which were heading into the water. We then went around the island and saw at least 6...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 06/21/19 | 12:00pm

The sun shone high in the sky on this lovely Friday in Friday Harbor! Almost immediately, the crew received reports of whales not too far away, so everyone got really excited.

Captain Pete, Naturalist Erin and I took our vessel, the Sea Lion, out of the harbor and headed south through the San Juan Channel. Passing between San Juan and Lopez, we boated past Cattle Point lighthouse, a beautiful southern point to our island. Then, we turned...

Laura C. | 6-21-2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

Today was a gorgeous day aboard M/V Kestrel with Captain Gabe leading our voyage!  We headed south and were lucky right off the bat, finding harbor seals, Steller’s sea lions and a pair of bald eagles all sharing some small rocky islands right near San Juan Island.  We all were able to appreciate the sheer size of a hefty male sea lion as he shimmied his way towards the edge of the rocks, surrounded by basking females.  The harbor seals...

Laura C. | 6-21-2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

Today was a gorgeous day aboard M/V Kestrel with Captain Gabe leading our voyage!  We headed south and were lucky right off the bat, finding harbor seals, Steller’s sea lions and a pair of bald eagles all sharing some small rocky islands right near San Juan Island.  We all were able to appreciate the sheer size of a hefty male sea lion as he shimmied his way towards the edge of the rocks, surrounded by basking females.  The harbor seals...

Laura C. | 6-20-2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 pm

Our second trip on the 5:30 whale watch was spectacular!  We headed north and found T124As traveling right around Saturna Island!  The water was glass calm and as we were the only vessel in the area, the surrounding waters were quite peaceful!  We passed a couple of bald eagles perched on a surrounding rock formation and even spotted a juvenile bald eagle!  The calf of the T124A family was quite active and we were able to see most of the...

Laura C.| 6-20-19 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

What a spectacular day out on the water!  We traveled south through San Juan Channel towards Cattle Point and our first marine mammal encounters consisted of Steller’s sea lions!  It was so exciting to get some up close and personal looks at these charismatic creatures basking in the sun and jumping in and out of the cool water.  There were a couple of massive males present on the rocks as well!  These sea lions were quite active today and...

Piper | Thursday, June 20, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00 AM

This morning when Captain Gabe and I arrived at the docks a ferry came into the marina here in Friday Harbor and reported seeing orcas just outside the town! While I got everyone fitted in exposure suits, he jumped on the boat and took it out to locate those orcas for us. Once he’d spotted them and we were ready to go, he brought Kestrel back and we all hopped on! We headed north into San Juan Channel to go check out this group...

Piper | Wednesday, June 19, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

Today was a bit of a blustery day in the Salish Sea, but Captain Gabe, Laura, and I had an awesome group of folks on the Sea Lion and we headed north into San Juan Channel on the lookout for all sorts of wildlife! There was a report of a lone male Bigg’s killer whale in Canadian waters so we headed that way and spied a bald eagle in the trees on Spieden Island and some harbor porpoises nearby!

We arrived on scene shortly...

Naturalist Alexandria | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM | June 18th, 2019

Today was a great day on the water!  We started out the day with a report of Bigg’s Killer Whales off Waldron Island.  We decided to head north to go check out these reports.

Today was a pretty windy day out on the water so we were happy to hear that conditions were calmer through San Juan Channel and up to Boundary Pass where these whales were spotted.  This was great news because based on the wind trends we had...